Cobwebs

Cobwebs have provided facilities services, predominantly to councils and housing associations, for more than 30 years. With over 60 employees, their existing paper and email-based system was becoming onerous to manage. Cobwebs wanted to grow their business and increase their competitiveness, and they recognised that a software solution would help them achieve this.

The Challenge

Cobwebs has provided facilities services, predominantly to councils and housing associations, for more than 30 years. With over 60 employees, their existing paper and email-based system was becoming onerous to manage. Information was often incomplete and paperwork would go missing, which would have a domino effect on the efficiency of the rest of the job process. Cobwebs wanted to grow their business and increase their competitiveness; they recognised that a software solution would help them achieve this. Oneserve was recommended to them by a building services business, so they began a field service management exploratory project.

The Solution

Alongside Oneserve, Cobwebs researched two other service management systems, but it was clear that Oneserve was the right solution for them. As a fast paced and very busy organisation, they were particularly attracted to the straightforward nature of Oneserve. They saw from the demo that it was easy to use and were confident that they could get up to speed quickly. Cobwebs principally needed Oneserve to manage their voids work, and they recognised that Oneserve would be the perfect package to support their team. As well as easily scheduling their operatives, Oneserve enabled them to take photos of their work, which were then stored directly in Oneserve via the mobile application. This was hugely valuable to Cobwebs because they could form a detailed, and highly-visible audit trail, something that was lacking from their previous paper-based system.

“It used to be very difficult to schedule additional work, because all the paperwork was held at the office. Now, we can see job progress in real time and book additional work with ease via the scheduler.”

Rob Valavicius, Operations Coordinator - Cobwebs

The Result

Increased Productivity – Since adopting Oneserve, the productivity of the Cobwebs team has significantly increased. The administrative burden of scheduling, monitoring and reporting has halved. The operatives are also able to complete more work, because additional jobs can immediately be scheduled and the operatives have access to all the information they need via their mobile phone. Rob expands on this further; “It can be difficult to predict the time it will take to complete some jobs. Previously, should a job be completed ahead of time, we would be reliant on the operative calling to let us know. Even then, it would be very difficult to schedule additional work because all the paperwork is held at the office. Now, we can see job progress in real time and can book additional work with ease via the scheduler.”

More Responsive – By managing the entire job process in one system, Oneserve has given Cobwebs the tools to deliver a more responsive service. Rob explains, “Our customer service has increased twofold. We can respond faster because we can easily and quickly book jobs through the scheduler, and we can answer customer queries instantly. Previously, we’d have to comb through paperwork to find an answer, but now, we just look up the job on Oneserve and can answer the question there and then, within seconds.”

Simple Reporting – The analytics feature of Oneserve provides a simple and yet comprehensive method for reporting. Cobwebs use the interactive dashboard and report building tool to create reports for both customers and the internal team. By no longer needing to collate information from multiple sources, Rob estimates, “I can now produce my reports 40% quicker than previously. It gives me everything I need in one place.”

Increased productivity by 50%

Increased customer service twofold

Reports are produced 40% quicker

“Our customer service has increased twofold. We can respond faster, because we can easily and quickly book jobs through the scheduler, and we can answer customer queries instantly.”